THE CORONATION INVITATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 316, 4 July 1912, Page 5

THE CORONATION INVITATIONS

MR. MILLS GETS BUSY. (From our own correspondent.) Wellington, Last Night. An interesting sidelight on the Coronation invitations, which were the subject of fitter complaint in the Legislative Council last session, was given in the Second Chamber to-day. It will be remembered that the Hon. C. H Mills complained that the Council had been ignored, and that an invitation forwarded to it direct had never reached it. In his speech on the Address-in-Reply today Mr. Mills stated that in view of the fact that the correspondence asked for had been refused he had endeavored to follow up the subject on his own account and had forwarded the following letter to London: "Wellington, N.Z., 'Wairau,' 23 Kensington street., November 6, 1911 -The Chairman . of the Lords - and Commons Coronation Committee— Dear Sirs—As I have noticed in various papers that there seems to have been some misunderstanding and unpleasantness in regard to the kind and generous invitation you forwarded through the Premier to the members of the Dominion Parliament of New Zealand, and again to< eight members of the Legislative Council, without any one of us accepting or replying to the committee, I am writing to say that we never had the privilege of seeing or hearing about them from first to last, until Sir Joseph Ward and Dr. Findlay had nearly reached England. When we read the paragraph from Homo, which we have quoted in Hansard (sent with the letter) you will see the position I and other members have taken up in the matter, without the Government even replying to our last motion passed in the Legislative Council. Had we received the kind invitation you sent, some of us w,ould certainly have accepted with pleasure, and would have been very proud to pay homage to our noble Sovereign, His Most Graciou9 Majesty King George V. -We should very much like you to send us a copy of the cables you sent, with copies of the replies, as I can assure you, gentlemen, we are not in the slightest to blame for apparent rudeness in not accepting the invitation to be present at the groat historical event."

In reply, the secretary of the Empire Parliamentary Association, Mr. H. D. Egville, writing from London under date March 2, 1912, said, amongst other things: "I am very much obliged to you for kindly forwarding copies of the debates in the New Zealand Parliament upon the subject of the invitation which was sent by the Lords and Commons Committee (1911) to the New Zealand Houses of Parliament, and I need hardly say that it was a source of the keenest disappointment to the Committee here that no official representatives of the Xew Zealand Government could accept the Committee's invitation, and though we were fortunate in securing the presence of the Hon. Alfred Baldey and Mr. R. Heaton-Rhodes (who happened to be in England) at some of.the functions in London, it was of course natural that the absence of official representation from the New Zealand Chamber was apparent at many of the more especially during the country tour. With regard to the request to furnish you with copies of' the cables, you will readily understand that I am not in a position to disclose the terms of the communications which were transmitted through the office of the Secretary of State. It is only a matter of the greatest regret on our part that, after repeated suggestions and proposals, the Government'of New Zealand finally decided that they were unable to comply with the invitation, stating that among other difficulties; the shortage of the time was one. While my committee were greatly disappointed' at the absence of official representation' from New Zealand, they appreciate very, much indeed the interest which has been> taken in the matter „by representative! men in both Houses of the New 'Zealand* Legislature." The letter adds that regret was also felt because of the non-attend-ance of New Zealand representatives at' the meeting held to form an Empire Parliamentary Association, while the committee feels that "it is not possible now to do anything to remedy the unfortunate circumstances," They 'hope for "tlie provision of greater opportunities for future visits." Mr. Mills duly acknowledged the letter, and expressed the hope that a branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association would be established here.